a world of café stories

White Label Coffee, Amsterdam

By KENNY MAH and CK LIM

White label coffee is usually a term of anonymity – coffee suppliers who supply retail-appropriate roasted beans to cafés and companies to be packaged with the logos of these clients – but White Label Coffee is certainly known for roasting their own beans.

Started by Franscesco Grassotti (formerly a barista at Amsterdam coffee landmarks Espressofabriek and Quartier Putain) and Elmer Oomkens (who was Grassotti’s colleague at Brandmeesters), White Label Coffee does have an aura of anonymity, situated as it is in the Jan Evertsenstraat neighborhood. This is not a café that screams for attention.

With high ceilings, white walls and blonde wood floors, White Label Coffee is minimalist in décor but not without character – Oriental rugs and a sketched map of the world with origins of beans they carry tagged on it ensure that.

The no-nonsense layout is accentuated by coffee equipment everywhere: a Kees van der Westen Spirit shares precious bar space with a Mahlkönig EK 43 grinder and freshly baked pastries and cakes. Deeper inside the café, old sofas coddle up next to a Giesen W6 roaster and bags of coffee beans ready for roasting.

For espresso, no blends are used; instead single origin beans such from Ethiopia, Brazil and Indonesia are preferred. Here, the espresso shots are pulled “double naked”, meaning only the double shot filter basket and a bottomless “naked” portafilter without any spouts are used.

Similarly for filter coffee, whatever is seasonal and fresh is offered. They certainly know their way around coffee. Earlier this year, one of their baristas, Floris van der Burg, won the 2015 Dutch AeroPress Championship. There’s no doubt about it: while quiet and unassuming, White Label Coffee is the home of coffee champions and champion cuppas.